


Gift-Giving

by nirejseki, robininthelabyrinth (nirejseki)



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Ghosts, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 21:45:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15082382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/robininthelabyrinth
Summary: Leonard Snart shows up for Christmas to gift Iris and Barry with a warning.Then he shows up again. And again. Andagain- and each time he brings a gift.(And then, just when they decide to do something about it, things get complicated.)





	Gift-Giving

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sandrine Shaw (Sandrine)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandrine/gifts).



> For Sandrine Shaw, who requested Iris/Len/Barry for the DC Rare Pair Swap

It starts, Iris is pretty sure, with Christmas.

Honestly, it probably started a hell of a lot earlier than that given the intense looks being thrown around that evening - thanks for not mentioning your ongoing flirtation with a supervillain earlier, _Barry_ \- but that's certainly when _she_ first found out about it.

So, Christmas. 

Snart breaks into their home (apparently to give them a warning, of all things), but his eyes are fixed on Barry from the start and suddenly Barry's pushing Snart up against the wall (is it wrong that she thinks that's hot? because it is super hot) and there's even _more_ intense looks - you know what, she's just going to call it eye-fucking, because it is _totally_ eye-fucking - and that's about when Iris decides to insert herself into the conversation and Snart's attention turns to _her_.

Which, _hoo boy_. 

Somehow she didn't notice it until she had his full attention on her, but that man is _fine_.

They say some stuff - Iris honestly can't recall what, except she distinctly remembers she put her foot in her mouth at some point, but luckily Snart just looked amused - and next thing you know Snart's walking out of their lives.

"Okay," Barry says, running his hand through his hair. "We've got to warn -"

"It's not going to happen immediately, right?" Iris asks intently.

Barry blinks at her. "Uh, no. Not till tonight, but -"

"There's nothing we can do until we find them, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"So theoretically you could just text Cisco and get him started on looking and go over in, hmm, thirty minutes or so, right?"

"Uh," Barry says. "Yeah, I could. But -"

"Good," Iris growls, and yanks him into the bedroom.

(It's mean of her, she knows it, they're not even officially together at that point but she and Barry have been hooking up here and there on the downlow since forever and damnit that was _hot_.)

"Okay," Barry says breathlessly when they're done. "It's good to know you think he's unbearably attractive, too."

"Oh yeah," Iris says. "Emphasis on _unbearable_." She sighs. "Too bad."

"I know, right?" Barry says wistfully. 

Iris pats him on the shoulder. "You just keep up whatever you're doing and he'll be a good guy in no time. He warned us about this time, didn't he? And refused to join in with the bad guy plan?"

Barry looks cheered by that thought.

Of course, then he has to run to fight Weather Wizard and Trickster but yeah, whatever. 

It's not like Snart's going to be anything more than the occasional extra zing to get them revved up.

In fact, Iris bets that they won't see him again for months.

It's a good thing no one is there when she thinks that, because she turns out to be epically wrong.

* * *

"Uh, Barry's not here right now," Iris says to Snart, who is typing away at _her_ computer.

"I know," Snart says. "Off fighting - whatever it is this week, I take it?"

Iris opens her mouth to correct him, realizes _she_ doesn't know what it is Barry's up to right now, and ends up shrugging. 

"You ought to make a chart or something," Snart advises. "Keep track of 'em. There's got to be some repeats eventually, yeah?"

"There's only repeats when we don't beat them the first time," Iris says. She's bantering with him. Why is she bantering with him?

"Or when they break out of prison," Snart reminds her.

"Speaking of which," Iris says, "are you here to deliver another warning or something? Because I can give the message to Barry if you like."

And then he can leave.

Snart clicks his tongue instead. "For shame, Miss West," he says. "You can do much better than being Barry Allen's answering machine secretary - a charming image as that is."

"Snart," Iris says flatly. "If you don't have a good reason to be here, go away."

He turns away from the computer at last and flashes her a smirk that would totally give her shivers if she didn't _know better_ , damnit body, stop shivering. 

(She _does_ know better, it's just that her body disagrees.)

He gets up. "I'll leave you be, then," he says. "Since my presence is so unwelcome."

He does make a point of brushing by Iris as he walks to the door, the slightest hint of strong shoulder and lean waist and clearly that's what confuses her enough to say, "I didn't say that..."

It earns her another smirk.

"Snart," Iris says, recovering herself just before he leaves. "Why _did_ you come here?"

"Oh, you know," he says. "Just wanted to borrow your internet."

And then he's gone.

Jackass.

(But oh, such an unfairly _pretty_ jackass.)

Obviously, Iris immediately goes to check the computer, where he hasn't even bothered to close the Internet tabs he was using. She'll check for all sorts of spyware and -

Huh.

Is that -?

Wait. That means the _Fire Commissioner_ is -

With the _Darbiniyans_?! 

Holy crap, if Iris can verify this, this is going to be the biggest story since the Flash. And better than that, it doesn't _involve_ the Flash - that'll show her stupid editor that she can do more than just, quote, blog about him like some lovestruck fangirl, end quote - 

She settles down in front of the computer and begins to work.

It doesn't actually occur to her until much later that maybe Leonard "your writing has a strong point of view" Snart left this for her as a gift.

* * *

"This is amazing, Barry," Iris gushes. "Oh my god, everything is _so good_."

"I know, right?" Barry says, slurping down some more noodles. "I'd just about given up hope of finding a decent Thai place ever since Siam Palace closed."

"I _had_ given up," Iris says. "Where'd you hear of this one? I must've walked right by it a dozen times and never noticed it, it's such a hole in the wall."

She's expecting agreement, but what she gets is an awkward silence.

"Barry?"

"Uh," he says. "It's kinda an awkward story."

Iris' eyebrows go up. "Then I definitely want to hear it."

"Okay," Barry says. "So. Um. Snart broke into the house."

"I know," Iris says, a little confused. "I was there both times."

"Well," Barry says shiftily. "Let's say maybe it was more than two times..."

"Barry!" It isn't, necessarily, a _disapproving_ exclamation; but really she'd like to be kept informed of these things.

"Just, like, twice more!" Barry protests. "The first time he just had some more information for me, that's all."

"And the second?"

"The second time, he was sitting at the dining room table chowing down some takeout Thai," Barry says. "I asked him why he was there, he wouldn't give me a straight answer -"

Several minutes of flirtatious banter, Iris translates. 

"And then he just - left. Without explaining." Barry shrugs. "It was weird. But, well, he did leave the Thai food behind, and I'd just been out for a run, and it turned out to be _amazing_ and there was a menu in the bag, so..."

Iris tries to hide a smirk. Of course.

"What?" Barry asks, suspicious.

"Has it ever occurred to you that that might have been his excessively convoluted way of tipping you off about the Thai place?" Iris asks. 

It seems obvious to _her_ , but Barry looks dumbstruck at the idea.

"But why would he do that?" Barry asks.

"I don't know," Iris says. "Why keep tipping you off about bad guys? Why leave me the lead for the story that's going to make my career? I don't know. Maybe he wants to be friends."

She thinks about how Snart looks at Barry.

She thinks about how Snart looks at _her_.

"...possibly more," she allows.

"More?" Barry asks. "But -" He flushes. "I mean. I'm taken. Wait. I am taken, right?" 

"We're definitely dating," Iris confirms, hiding a smile. "But I don't think he's just interested in you."

"But...oh. _Oh_. Do you really think..?"

Iris shrugs. "No idea," she says. "It's just a shot in the dark."

"But, if he is..." Barry starts, then trails off.

"If he is?"

"I mean. What's our response? We're both taken, right? So we've got to let him down gently." Barry looks a bit disappointed at the thought. More than a bit. He looks positively wistful, and Iris knows perfectly well that it isn't because he'd rather be dating Snart than her. There's no one alive that Barry would rather be dating but her; that's one of the staples of her life. "Anyway, seems kind of weird to me. Why would anyone hit on a pair of people he knows are dating each other, anyway?"

"Barry," Iris says, putting her box of take-out aside. She's going to want to have her full attention on this conversation - one she's been meaning to have for a while, but couldn't quite figure out how to broach. She didn't want Barry to feel like he isn't enough for her or anything, after all. This, however, is as perfect a lead-up as she could've possibly hoped for. 

Another gift from Snart, if he's smart enough to have figured this out. 

He probably is.

"We need to talk," she adds.

"Yeah?" he asks, looking concerned. Those were the four scariest words in the English language to Barry, who preferred to avoid honest and open communication whenever possible. They'd have to work on that. "What about?"

"Nothing bad," Iris assures him. "Tell me, have you ever heard of polyamory...?"

* * *

Of course, _right after_ they have that extremely promising conversation, they get word from Felicity that Snart and Rory have left Central City to go save the world via a time-traveling spaceship or something - she wasn't entirely sure, since she was working entirely off of a series of over-excited texts and photos from Ray Palmer, but that seemed like the gist of it. 

"Great," Iris says. "You overshot it."

"When I said there was good in him, I meant I _wanted to be_ the good in him," Barry whines. "Not that he should go save the world!"

"Not that you mind."

"No, not really. I'm really happy for him, actually, you know? He's finally realized he can be more than just a villain."

Iris smiles and shakes her head. "I wouldn't worry," she says. "He'll be back."

"How are you so sure?"

"Remember what my dad said about him? He comes by every few months and hits something in Central? And you yourself told me he refused point-blank to leave Central. This is his city, Barry. He'd sooner die than leave it for good."

They both leave that conversation reassured, but Iris has cause to regret her words soon enough.

"He's dead," Barry says dully, his head in her lap. "He sacrificed himself to save the world. Rory was - in pieces. I dunno. It was bad."

"I can't believe it," Iris says. She feels numb. Snart, so full of life and smirks and _opportunity_ \- dead?

Surely not.

And yet, it seems like it's true.

Iris goes out and catches Rory before he goes back with the Legends.

"I'm sorry," she blurts out.

He pauses and stares at her.

"About Snart," she says. 

"He did a stupid thing," Rory says. His voice is gruff and his eyes are distant. His hands tremor. "His choice, I guess."

"So what if it was? It still sucks balls," Iris says.

Her crudeness makes it through where her sympathy didn't, earning a bark of surprise from him.

"Well, lookit you," he says, the corners of his mouth turning up, just a bit. "Got some spirit in you after all. Guess Snart really was onto something when he set out to land you and your boy."

Iris freezes. She'd hoped, of course, and Barry had as well, but... "He really was interested?"

Rory nods. "Definitely," he says. "Half the reason he signed up for this whole pile of crap."

Iris frowns at him, noticing how he still looked terrible: bags under his eyes, skinnier, smelling of beer even so early in the morning.

"If you're not doing well on the Legends, you can always come to us," she tells him. "Team Flash would be more than happy to have you."

Rory looks surprised again. "Thanks," he finally says. "I'll keep that in mind."

And then he goes.

She goes home - Barry's in the office, finishing all the work he put aside for the alien thing - and, in a fit of nostalgia, orders Thai.

She's halfway through her favorite curry when someone says, "Damn, I love that place."

Iris jumps halfway out of her skin and twists to look at -

Snart.

_Snart?!_

"What are you doing here?!" she yelps. 

He shrugs. "Never could resist good Thai." A smirk. "Particularly good Thai and a beautiful woman."

Iris shakes her head to clear it. "Stop flirting for literally one minute, will you? I thought you were _dead_. They said you died destroying that Oculus thing - _Rory_ thinks you're dead! He's _mourning_ you!"

Snart scowls. "Yeah, I know. Can't seem to get a hold of him to tell him to knock it off."

Iris mouths the words 'knock it off' to herself in utter disbelief. 

"It was a nice thing you did for him, though, inviting him here," Snart adds. "You should get him to follow through on that. Then maybe I could talk to him..."

"Is there any reason you haven't talked to him already?" Iris demands. "He deserves to know!"

"Know what?"

"That you're not dead and gone, maybe?!"

Snart smirks. "Sorry to be the one to tell you, Miss West," he drawls. "But you're only half right there."

Iris is trying to figure out what he means when he reaches forward, aiming for the box of rice, and his hand goes right through it.

Iris stares.

"I _am_ dead," Snart says. "Just - not quite gone."

* * *

It turns out that Snart has issues being seen by people affected by temporal radiation, which means all the Legends.

And, most annoyingly, Barry.

She says 'most annoyingly' because Barry is an extremely bad liar about it.

"So Snart is a ghost, but I can't see him. I think I get it," Barry says, fixed smile on his face. "That's - interesting."

"He doesn't believe you," Snart observes, hovering over Barry's shoulder.

"No shit," Iris says.

"Are you _talking_ with the - yes, yes, of course you are," Barry says, shaking his head. "You're talking to the 'ghost'."

"Ouch," Snart says. "I could _hear_ the quotation marks on that one. Be careful of any invitations to STAR Labs; they're not very good with respecting autonomy there."

Iris resists the urge to flip Snart off. Or the clearly disbelieving Barry, who obviously thinks she hasn't noticed him furiously whispering on the phone with Caitlin about metas capable of causing hallucinations or psychosis - she is _not_ being affected by the _Rainbow Raider_ , for fuck's sake. His powers don't even work that way!

"We could play the 'put a number behind your back' game," Snart offers, clearly vastly amused by this. She'd hold it against him if he wasn't so damn attractive when he was being a condescending asshole.

...does Iris have a type? Even _Eddie_ ended up lying to her face and ignoring her ability to make her own decisions by the end of it.

Iris might have a type.

Damnit.

"Never mind, Barry," she says. "Just - forget about it."

She'll just deal with this Snart ghost thing herself.

Of course, Barry doesn't forget about it just like that, but the next meta situation ends up cropping up its ugly head and Barry gets distracted.

Snart is, too, at first, but then he hears about the type of meta powers involved and promptly loses his interest.

That, or else he's just decided it's more fun to drive Iris insane by hovering behind her and commenting on her latest article.

The worst part is, she's having a great time arguing with him about it, too. It'd be one thing he if he was bugging her about stupid nits like grammar or spelling (that's what first drafts and proof-readers are /for, damnit Barry), but it's not.

He's smart and articulate; he asks good, sharp, pointed questions about the content and approach and structure; he seems really interested in the murky underpinnings necessary to make a _great_ article rather than an acceptable one, he actually cares about Central City politics in a way Barry never has...

It takes her about a week of sneaking around Barry to write her articles before she has the horrifying realization that she might be having a bit of an emotional affair with a _ghost_.

She also makes the mistake of having that realization out loud.

Snart laughs so hard she'd be worried about him dying if he wasn't already dead.

"Shut up," she grumbles, but doesn't really mean it. She never got to see Snart laugh in life.

"No," Snart says, wiping his eyes despite the fact that they're still dry. Some symptom of death, maybe? "No, it's good. I'm glad to know that I would've scored eventually. At least with you, anyway."

Iris hesitates. They'd never discussed... 

"Were you?" she asks. 

"Was I what?"

"Hitting on both of us?"

"Oh, definitely. In equal measure," Snart agrees. "Barry was first, of course, but then I started reading your body of work -"

He _would_ be attracted to someone because of that. Snart's no intellectual, but damn if the man didn't appreciate _narrative_.

"- and, well, I had to meet you. And what happens? Turns out your body of work ain't the only fascinating body you've got."

"Oooh, good one. That one was _smooth_."

"Wasn't it?" Snart says, looking pleased. 

Iris hides a laugh. "Tell me, what was it about Barry that attracted you first?"

"Barry? Why?"

"Just wondering." She has a hunch.

Snart frowns at her. "Well, his ass looks great in that suit?"

"I mean, I agree," Iris says. "Ten out of ten. But I'd be willing to put money down that you noticed that _after_ he started punning back at you."

"I do like wordplay," Snart allows. 

"Somehow I noticed, what with all the cold jokes."

"A good pun's as good as cold."

"You mean good as _gold_ \- oh. Shut up."

"Make me," Snart taunts.

Oh, he's getting _comfortable_ , is he? 

Snart might be familiar with Iris West's wit via her work, but he hasn't met the irrepressibly competitive half of her, winner of the West Family (plus Barry) prank competition for twelve unbroken years.

"If you were alive," Iris says sweetly, "I would probably jump you now."

Snart chokes.

"There," she says. "Shut you up, didn't I?"

Snart blinks owlishly at her, then grins. "Good one."

"Oh, no, I was serious," she says, making him stare at her. "Sorry, am I _moving too fast_ for you?"

Snart is laughing again.

"Don't worry," he says. "I'm sure I can put a _freeze_ on things."

"I know you're fond of cold puns, but there is some benefit to letting things get more _heated_."

"Really? That's _news_ to me."

Now Iris is laughing, too. "Well, lucky me," she manages to say with almost a straight face. Almost. "I'm very good at _covering the news_..."

Nope, that's it, she's lost it.

"Yeah," Snart drawls. "I've noticed how good you are at covering the Flash - very impressive _length_ and _breadth_ of coverage there -"

Iris is howling with laughter, even as the thought of a ghostly Snart watching her and Barry (not that they've had time to do anything this past week) starts a nice warm glow in her belly. 

"But what do I know, anyway? I'm not a professional news _spooks_ -man."

Nope, back to pure laughter. 

"Snart," Iris manages to get out. "That last joke was positively vile. _Juven_ -vile, even."

"Oh, I like that one!" Snart exclaims. "That one's new."

"Not 'news'?"

"Miss West, I'll have you know that I never recycle a joke," Snart starts, and Iris knows where this is going. "After all, that would be -"

" _Old news_ ," they both chorus.

And after that neither of them can talk for laughing for a good long while.

* * *

"Uh, Iris?"

"Yeah, Bar?" Iris says, a little distracted. Snart was disappearing more often to go wander through "his" city - his words - and every once in a while he brings back fascinating little tidbits that she fully intends to use to conquer the CCPN newsroom. 

Just a blogger, her _ass_.

"I, uh - I think I need to apologize."

That gets Iris' attention. 

She spins her chair away from her home office set up to look at Barry, who's hovering in the doorway and looking very abashed. 

"Apologize for what?" she asks, automatically searching her memory for anything that might be - different. Not that she'd notice, of course, if she'd been affected by the timeline change... "What happened, and can we fix it?"

"I love that that's your first question," Barry says wryly. "But no, everything's fine. I was just a judgy dick and I didn't believe you when, uh, there's been some reason to think I should have."

"You should always listen to me," Iris says automatically.

"Even when you demand a fourth helping of dumplings?"

" _Especially_ then. I'll regret it later like a big girl. What didn't you believe me about?"

"The, uh...ghost. Snart's ghost."

Iris straightens up. "You saw him?"

"He pushed me out of the way of an anti-meta beam that the army base around town developed," Barry says. 

"He _pushed_...?"

"I was running," Barry clarifies. "Speed Force at full blast, and suddenly there he was."

Weird, but Iris will take it. "And he managed to push you? While you were going that fast?"

"...he'd stuck his foot out and I was so shocked at seeing him that I tripped over it. But the _end result_ was that I went right under the anti-meta beam, so it was obviously part of his plan! He's sneaky like that."

Iris thinks about Snart as she's gotten to know him these last few weeks. "Yeah, fair," she says. "He really is."

"Is he here right now?"

"No, out and about," Iris says. "Checking up on, quote, 'things'."

" _Things_? Really?"

"Apparently, I'm to learn to love the definition of 'plausible deniability'," Iris says dryly. "How someone incorporeal and invisible to the vast majority of the population can cause as much trouble as he's always implying he is, I don't even know, but I'm not putting anything past him, dead or not."

"Probably a good idea," Barry says, and he's starting to smile now. "So he's - he's really back? He's here? Not now, but - most of the time?"

"Yeah," Iris says, grinning helplessly. Barry's joy is always so infectious. "Yeah, he's back. Maybe not the way we'd like, but - ghost is better than nothing, right?"

"Yeah, definitely!" Barry looks wistful. "Wish I could talk to him."

"I'll get us an Ouija board," Iris says. "Not that it'll help, him being incorporeal and unable to touch things and all..."

"Even if he wasn't, using Scrabble letters is more effective," Barry objects. "Or fridge magnets."

"Barry Allen, tell me you're not _still_ scared of Ouija board after all these years!"

"It was scary!"

"It was a bunch of guys in sheets sneaking around!"

"Hey, I was ten!"

"Yeah, exactly! It was fifteen years ago!"

"I have trauma," Barry sniffs, but he's still grinning. "Lots of trauma." His grin widens. "Maybe I need some TLC to help me get over it."

Iris snorts. Oh, Barry. "Yeah, speaking of which," she says, suddenly grinning herself. "What do you say to asking Snart if he'd like to spectate a bit of that TLC?"

Barry opens his mouth.

Then his brain finishes processing what she said and he freezes.

Fastest man alive, yeah. Including in the ability for his blood to rush south, Iris bets.

"Just think about it," she says. "You can't see him, but you know he's watching. Watching me take you apart, piece by piece - making comments and suggestions that only I can hear - and you can only _imagine_..."

Judging by the look on Barry's face, he approves of that plan. A lot.

(Once he gets over the need to make puns about a spectating specter, Snart approves, too.)

* * *

Iris spends a surprising amount of her time writing letters now. 

Well, emails, not letters, but the concept is the same. Snart has a lot of things he wants to say to a lot of people, and apparently most people aren't the perfect level of time radiation (indirect exposure from being with Barry) that she is, and that means email.

Most of the emails are to Rory and Lisa Snart, so heavily couched in in-jokes that it's practically some sort of code that they're practically unreadable - Rory made a deliberate detour to visit after the third one, his eyes alight with desperate hope that Iris manages to satisfy by translating Snart directly, complete with attempts to replicate his ridiculous body language, while Lisa sticks to increasingly angry emails about what the fuck "Lenny" was thinking when he went on the Legends trip to begin with - but some of them are to...other people. About other things.

"Snart, tell me true," Iris says. "You'd let me know if I was running a crime empire for you, right?"

"Tell SS that he'll thank me for the extra room down the line," Snart instructs instead of answering. "Say, hmm, say RD and LS would be too explosive." 

"Snart..."

"Oh, and tell HR that his idea is stupid, but if he wants to spend a year in Iron Heights, he's welcome to go it solo."

" _Snart_!"

"You really would be happier with the plausible deniability."

"I would _not_. I'm a journalist, I like knowing things. Tell me!"

"It's not a crime empire," Snart says soothingly. "Just a small - side project."

" _Side project_. Snart, in case you've forgotten, you're dead."

"Dead but not forgotten," Snart says cheerfully, but she can see the wistfulness in his eyes. "A man's got to have a legacy, even if I can't personally participate in it."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not," Snart admits. "Say, if you had to pick a supervillain name, what would it be?"

"I don't think I trust that segue."

"That's because you're smart. Well?"

Iris rolls her eyes. "It depends on what type of supervillain I am, obviously. Do I have a power set? A theme weapon?"

"Think more 'organizer of other supervillains'," Snart says.

"That's what I was worried about," Iris mutters. Snart might've had a point regarding being happier with plausible deniability. "Why are you setting up supervillains, anyway? Aren't you dating Barry now?"

"Of course," Snart says. "But that's _why_ I'm doing it."

Iris looks at him.

Snart looks - unusually serious, actually. "One thing I know about criminals, and we can all agree that I'm something of an expert there, is that they both love and hate structure. They can't fit into society's structure or else they'll be legal thieves -"

" _Legal_ thieves?"

"Government, police, corporations, lawyers, insurance companies..."

"...fair. Go on."

"Being left out of - or not feeling like you fit in to - society is what drives people to crime, most of the time," Snart explains. "Whether they know it or not. But that means most of 'em want to fit in _somewhere_. That's why you've got the Families, gangs, criminal-focused bars -"

"You worked solo."

"I worked with Mick," Snart corrects. "We made our own society, the two of us."

"Codependent," Iris coughs into her palm.

Snart rolls his eyes at her. "We convinced Mick not to move in with you, didn't we?"

"Only because you're _incorporeal_."

"Well, that doesn't seem like to change, does it? And if it does, you'd be better off having him around anyway; he's a great chef."

"We are _not_ \- hm. Great chef?"

"Amazing."

"I'll...keep that in mind. Anyway, we're getting off track. What's all this - fascinating pseudo-psychological analysis as it is - have to do with starting a supervillain squad?"

"It's got to do with it because having a squad means people will want to _join_ it," Snart says. "Before they do anything really big. And if _you're_ running the squad, then..."

"Then I can either work with it to make it less dangerous, or, even if I just refuse to be involved, I have advance notice of it," Iris says, getting it. "Giving Barry a head start."

"Exactly," Snart says.

"Snart, has anyone told you that you're dangerously good at gift-giving?" 

Snart grins at her. "You haven't even put together the fact that being a player in the Central City underworld, even indirectly, will get you access to all the stories your black little heart desires - and all the excitement you could possibly want in chasing them."

Not to mention the respect that is in somewhat short supply at CCPN...

Damn, but Snart is _good_ at gifts.

"Okay, fine, fine," Iris says. "I'm in already. What's the next step?"

"The next step, I think, is for you to meet one of Central City's finest fences. She's trying to start up her own metahuman-related organization - mostly smuggling, not theft, because we all fall back on what we're best at when we try something new - so we either get on her good side and become allies or we don't and become rivals, but either way it'll be good to know what we are on the ground floor."

Iris feels a frisson of excitement run up her spine. What can she say, she loves the adrenaline of going after something dangerous. 

"What's her name?" Iris asks.

Snart smirks and runs an invisible hand over Iris' hair, fondness in every line of him. She wishes she could feel it the way Barry sometimes can when he's using the Speed Force. 

"Amunet," he says. "Her name is Amunet. The Blacksmith."

"Oh, damn," Iris says. "That's a _good_ one."

* * *

"- so now we're going after fairy tale monsters, I guess?" Rory concludes his story with a sigh.

"At least you got to go to Aruba for a bit?" Snart says sympathetically, which Iris repeats. 

"Yeah, with a pile of gatecrashers." 

He pours himself some more hot cocoa, an action which causes both Iris and Barry to immediately extend their own mugs. Rory makes _amazing_ hot cocoa. With mini-marshmallows, of course - Snart insists, even if he can't drink any (an absolute crime), and honestly, he's right. 

"Well, that sounds - incredibly ominous," Barry decides. 

"No kidding," Snart says.

Rory shrugs and makes a face in agreement. They've brokered a deal where he takes the jump ship to visit them in Central every other weekend unless there's a crisis, and he's looking a lot better. Though that might be due to the fact that he also visits his shrink while he's visiting them - he and Snart had had a nasty fight about it, proxied by a very unfortunate Iris, but she can't complain that much, given the clearly beneficial results.

"Enough about me," he says. "How's it going on your end? Anything new with the Flash? What about the Rogues?"

"You really ought to come back and take your place in the Rogues," Snart says.

Iris repeats it.

"I will, I will. It's my retirement plan."

"I'm surrounded by supervillains," Barry says with a grin. "Help, help. Do you know that Iris finally has a name?"

"Oh yeah? Mazel tov. What is it?"

"It's not that big a deal -" Iris demurs.

"Yes, it is," Barry and Snart say at the same time.

Barry loops an arm over her shoulder. "Iris West," he announces grandly. "Otherwise known as: The Weaver."

Rory blinks. "The...Weaver? As in - making clothing?"

Iris snorts. "As in making stories, Rory. Clotho, spinner and weaver of fate."

"Huh. I like that," he says, but he's still frowning.

"What's bugging you?" Snart asks, and Iris conveys.

"It's just - the fugitive fairytales we're dealing with? They're attracted to, uh, you know, appropriate-sounding things and places and people and stuff."

"So? It's not like I'm the _real_ Clotho," Iris points out.

"Yeah," Mick says, and his expression has gone grim. "But they don't know that."

Barry's in costume, suddenly, a spark of lightning, and even Snart is turning and Iris suddenly has this feeling in the back of her neck, like there's something behind her - something dark and powerful and grasping and _reaching_ for her -

"You touch her over my dead body," Snart snarls.

The feeling of dread snaps, its power broken, though Iris isn't dumb enough to turn around. 

Seriously, though. Is there any time that Snart _wouldn't_ pun?

\--

"C'mon, babe," Iris pleads. "We need you to wake up. We need you to come back to us. I'd even settled for one of your dumb puns right now. Come _on_."

"And soon," Barry adds, his eyes worriedly flicking to the clock. "We're on a time limit here."

"I still can't believe he's back," Ror- _Mick_ says blankly. His fingers are intertwined with Len's, and his knuckles are white from how tightly he's holding him.

It's a bit weird for Iris, adjusting from calling them Snart and Rory to Len and Mick, but after she used her brief spin (thanks, Len) as Clotho, a spider-hybrid capable of manipulating timelines if she immersed herself in them, to win a single chance for them to bring Len back using Mick's timeline, she can't think of them as anything else. That's how Mick thinks of them, and she was eight-knees-deep in his timeline and in his brain for quite a while, guiding Barry through the timeline to change the necessary things to give them a chance to save Len.

(And thanks to that, she knows how much Mick gave when he agreed to let her in, despite all his fears.)

She's not a spider anymore, thank god, but that does mean the effects of her power only lasts until the next sunrise - and with it, their only chance of retrieving Len from where he was trapped by the Oculus in the in-between betwixt life and death.

All he needs to do is consent to another chance at life.

But he won't wake up long enough to do it.

“Not yet he’s not,” Iris says grimly, before turning back to Snart. “C'mon, Sleeping Beauty," she urges. "We need you to wake up. That'd be the _best_ possible gift you could give us. Better than anything else. Please!"

"That's what bugs me, you know," Barry says. 

Iris turns to look at him.

"Uh, no offense meant, Iris."

"A spider isn't a bug, Barry," Iris says. "I more meant, what's bugging you?"

"I mean, this all started because of the whole fairy tale curse thing, right? That's what we've all been dealing with - mostly Mick and the Legends, but all of us. Right?"

Barry didn't seem to have any trouble making the Rory-Mick switch, Iris notes. Guess it's just her.

"Yeah?" Mick asks. "What about it?"

"I mean, he's asleep-like-death. That's pretty classic fairytale stuff right there - Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, that sort of thing - but we've _tried_ the traditional kiss-to-wake-up thing, and it didn't work!"

They'd all tried: Barry, Iris, even - at their urging and despite protests of a purely platonic sort of love being involved - Mick.

But Len still slept.

"I mean, we even tried giving him a Heimlich in case he had, you know, an apple piece in his throat, but - nothing! I just don't know what fairytale we're in, if it isn't one of those."

"I think we are," Mick says. "In one of those, I mean."

Iris and Barry blink at him.

"After you made me kiss 'im," Mick explains. "Gave me an idea."

"Oh? What idea -"

The door - which Iris is 90% sure she locked - swings open.

"Lemme at the contrary jerk," the woman standing there, resplendent in black leather and gold chain, says, her hands on her hips. 

"Hey, Lisa," Mick says. 

Lisa? As in, Lisa from Gotham?

"Snar- I mean Len's sister?" Barry asks. "You think she can do it?"

Hah! Barry has issues with it, too!

...not the focus right now.

"Well, you said platonic love might count," Mick points out. "And there ain't nobody Snart loves more than his baby sister. So I texted her to come over, stat."

"You're a pretty close second and you know it, Mickey," Lisa says. "But I come first."

She sounds so confident.

Iris can't help but hope that it really will work. She and Barry, they never really got a chance to see if love would bloom between them and Len; that’s why they thought it might work better with Mick, who Len has known since forever. But now that Iris thinks about it, from all the stories she’s heard about Lisa, from all the emails she's written, from the way Len’s face softened with amusement when he heard her (often profanity-laced) responses…

This might be it.

"Please let this work," she whispers as Lisa strides forward and kisses her brother on the cheek just as the moon sets, only an hour or so before the dawn.

For a long moment, there is nothing, and Iris' heart begins to break.

And then Len stirs.

Shivers.

_Opens his eyes_.

Iris makes a wordless shriek that she is _totally_ going to deny later and throws herself forward to wrap her arms around him. 

She feels Barry’s arms go over her shoulders as he also jumps forward to embrace them both.

“Saps,” Lisa sniffs, but she sounds approving. 

Len coughs a little, clearing his throat. “If you disapprove of my saps,” he says, his voice hoarse with sleep, “you should make like a tree and leaf.”

Iris groans and bonks her head against Len’s shoulders. “Why do I like you,” she says despairingly.

Barry’s sniggering. She can hear it. He has _such_ bad taste.

(And clearly, given that she’s – hopefully – dating them both, so does she.)

“Enough with the plant puns,” Mick says. “No offense, Lisa –”

“We don’t talk about the plant thing when I’m in Central,” she says sternly. 

Iris – doesn’t want to know.

Okay, she really wants to know, but she’s not going to ask.

She’ll ask Len about it later.

“Whatever. Anyway,” Mick says. “Weaver, don’t you need to do whatever it is you need to do?”

“Right,” Iris says. “Len, do you want to stay with us? Here? Alive?”

Len blinks at her. “This some sort of trick question?”

Barry pinches him, causing him to yelp. “Just answer it.”

“Yes,” Len says. “Obviously yes.”

Iris exhales with relief as the last bits of the fairytale power flows of her and Len suddenly – _solidifies_ , is the best was to describe it. He wasn’t not-solid before, but now he’s even more solid, more real, more /here than he was a second ago.

Len blinks, then looks down at himself.

“I’m back,” he says blankly. “It _worked_.”

“Yeah,” Iris says. “It worked.”

And then she kisses him.

And makes room for Barry to kiss him, too.

The perfect fairytale ending.

“You know, I think I _will_ make like a tree,” Lisa says. “Mick, call me when they’ve stopped; I’m getting something to drink.”

“Are you kidding?” Mick says. “You think _I_ want to be here to see this? I’m coming with you.”

Iris rolls her eyes.

Okay, maybe not a _perfect_ fairytale…

* * *

“So let me get this straight,” Joe says. He’s got that furrow between his brows that means that a storm is coming – usually one of his temper tantrums. Iris isn’t afraid: Cecile will kick his ass if he starts yelling or tries to pull his usual silent treatment stunt. “You two have finally fallen in love after all these years.”

“That’s right,” Iris says.

“And you even got a big, beautiful wedding –”

“Interrupted by Nazis,” Barry helpfully interjects.

“Interrupted by Queens,” Iris mutters. Yes, she’s still bitter. 

“And, sure, you had to deal with some trouble at first –”

“That time when we thought Barry was gone for good but actually he just disappeared for six months and lost his mind a little?”

Joe is making a face like he doesn’t appreciate Iris’ interruptions.

Well, tough. Iris isn’t exactly appreciating his attempts to rewrite history so it’s all sunshine and roses.

“Either way,” he says through gritted teeth. “You two are still happily married, right?”

“Yes,” Iris says. “We are.”

“Then why the _fuck_ are you dating Snart?!” he explodes.

“Watch your language around Jenna,” Cecile snaps. 

“Sorry,” Joe says. “But seriously – Iris, why would you do this to Barry?”

“Uh, no,” Barry says. “I’m also dating Snart here.”

“Wait, _you’re_ the one cheating on Iris?” Joe asks, looking surprised.

Iris is a little bit offended that he was totally willing to believe that she would cheat on Barry but not vise-versa. What the hell, Dad?

“No,” Barry says. “No, we’re _both_ dating him.”

“That doesn’t make any _sense_!” Joe says. “And anyway, it doesn’t answer the question of _why_. Or even _when_!”

“There was a whole ghost thing,” Iris says breezily. “You missed it, but hey! I hear babies are super distracting, so no worries. Either way, it’s a done deal, so you’re going to shut up and accept it without trying to psychoanalyze our relationship. We like him, we’re dating him, we’re hopefully going to move into falling in love with him more than we already are, and there’s no rational reason we can give you that will convince you it’s a good thing – so we won’t.”

"You know what, fine," Joe snaps. "Forget Snart. Why is _Rory_ living with you?"

"He's a really great chef?" Iris offers helplessly even as Barry shrugs. "And anyway, the guy we're both dating wants him to, so..."

Joe crosses his arms with a scowl. “You still can’t _both_ be dating him.”

“Joe,” Cecile says gently. “Tell me, have you ever heard of polyamory…?”


End file.
